Coaches' love for kids extends to foster children

Sunday

Jun 22, 2014 at 4:00 AM

By JOEY MILLWOODTimes-News Staff Writer

Will and Kelsi Pack’s home looks like most parents’ — toys tucked away in corners, artwork covering the walls and the fridge, and smiling faces of children filling picture frames on the mantel in the living room. The difference for the Packs, however, is that the children smiling back from the photos aren’t their children.The couple has been fostering children for a year this July. Will, 35, an assistant soccer coach at Polk County High School, and Kelsi, 28, an assistant basketball coach at Converse College in South Carolina, knew before they got married that they wanted to do something like this.There wasn’t a desire to quickly become pregnant and have children. Instead, they dreamed of international adoption.“We felt like God was calling us to adopt at some point,” Kelsi Pack said.That dream didn’t take hold immediately, but last July, the two got serious. The couple had a lot of extra space in their home in Inman, S.C. “We felt like we should be using the space that God has given us,” Will Pack said.The first step was gathering information about international adoptions. They attended a conference at First Baptist Church in Spartanburg to look into the process in October 2012. What they found were strict guidelines from countries around the world that allowed international adoption, with China being the country they were most interested in.They didn’t meet the requirements that China set. Instead of giving up on their dream of adoption, however, the two decided to check out a portion of the conference on fostering children. It was a potential way to make a difference in the lives of kids. They left the conference with a positive impression of fostering children. During the process, the couple had taken in a foreign exchange student who was visiting and attending Polk County High. That experience also sparked the idea of becoming foster parents. Will Pack had been focused on adoption for so long, however, that it was really his wife who pushed him forward into the fostering world.“Her heart was really into it,” Will Pack said. “I was willing to give it a try.”They began their journey in November 2012 and received their licensing through Miracle Hill Ministries in Spartanburg, S.C. They were officially approved by the Youth Advocacy Program in April of last year. That process included a home interview, 14 hours of training, fire inspections, health inspections, a background check, physicals and completing a financial form.Just days after receiving their license, South Carolina’s DSS called them with an opportunity to take in two girls. With help from their church, Mountain View Church in Boiling Springs, S.C., and a nonprofit run by their pastor’s wife, PS I Love You Ministries, the couple dove head-first into fostering. They were called about the girls on a Tuesday, and they came that Friday night. The couple admitted to feeling nervous the first night. They made nuggets and macaroni and cheese, and that has become the customary first meal the Packs offer when new kids come into their home. And while the Packs were scared, that’s nothing compared to what the children are going through, Will Pack said.“They’re nervous and scared at first, too,” he said.“They’re not there by choice,” Kelsi Pack added. The children have just been separated from their parents for some reason or another and dropped off in a strange place with people they’ve never met.At that point, it’s up to the Packs to set the tone, and the tone the couple wants to set is one of love.“These kids need to understand that this is what love looks like,” she said. “You just love them as best you can, as if they were your kids.”And that’s one thing that keeps people from fostering, Will Pack said. They’re worried about loving the children and then giving them up, or they’re worried about just loving them, period.“You need to get over yourself and realize it’s just about the kids,” he said. “If you’re not going to love them, you’re not doing your job.”There are plenty of kids in America waiting to be loved by foster parents or adopted parents. In the United States, there are more than 400,000 kids in foster care, according to PS I Love You Ministries.The two girls were reunited with their parents in July of last year, and the Packs took in a boy and girl from July until October. They took in their last set of fosters in November — two boys who still live in their home.Even with their coaching and teaching careers, the experience was an adjustment. The children they’ve taken into their homes have been toddlers. There have been ups and downs. The couple have had to balance love and discipline and set an example.They’ve also had help from Will Pack’s parents, who went through the licensing process so they can babysit with the foster children from time to time.While there have been tough times over the first year, the couple has no regrets, said Kelsi Pack, who is seven months pregnant. “It’s worth it,” she said.Will Pack agreed. Loving the kids who have come through their home is a calling, he said. “We just feel like as Christians, that’s what God called us to do.”